One Week Until the Start of PokerStars WCOOP 2012

The 11th PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is fast approaching. There are $30m in tournament guarantees for 65 events spread over 22 days. Events start on Sunday September 2 and continue through September 23.

WCOOP 2011 paid out over $47m, 25% less than WCOOP 2010’s record breaking $63m. The total payout for WCOOP 2012 should be a good proxy measure of how much the industry has recovered from the impact of Black Friday.

This year sees events for every game type offered by PokerStars. Tournament structures include double shootout, triple shoot out and knock out formats. Eighteen of the events run over two days.

There are three $10,300 High Roller events; NL Hold’em, NL Hold’em Heads Up and an 8 Game tournament which starts just two hours before the $5,200 Main Event.

For those with less substantial bankrolls there is a $109 NL Hold’em event and a wide variety of events with a $215 buy in.

Everyone who cashes in an event will win points on the WCOOP Player of the Series Tournament Leader Board. First prize comprises: The Champion’s trophy; 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) package; 2013 EPT Grand Final package; 2013 TCOOP Main Event ticket and a custom chip set.

The premier online tournament series has grown from the original nine event series launched in 2002 when $730k was awarded in prizes and the Main Event had a $1,050 buy in. Last year 1,672 players stumped up $5,200 each to play the two day Main Event. Thomas “Kallllle” Pedersen emerged as the winner taking home $1,260,019 and the WCOOP Gold Bracelet.

Jocelyn Wood, Editor
Joss is a graduate in English from the University of Birmingham and has a Master’s Degree in Organisational Development from the University of Manchester. His career path has taken him from the British Army, through business & finance to seven years as a successful professional poker player.
His experience of the European Union, law, accounting, finance, regulation and online poker provide the basis for his insights in the PRO specialist categories of Industry and Law & Regulation.
As CEO he steered his own company through full Financial Services Authority regulation, and was asked by Morgan Stanley to take their UK mortgage business through the same process.
Although British, he lives in Arequipa, Peru, set high in the mountains and surrounded by volcanoes. He is married to a Peruvian and has three children.